Filling machine and method of filling containers



L. P. SINZ 2,187,332

FILLING MACHINE AND METHOD OF FILLING CONTAINERS Filed Nov. 24, 1937 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 lac/fence Z? 52/12 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 P. SINZ Filed NOV. 24, 1957 aiarz'er oressure \.l| llllltlllllllllll-f a FILLING MACHINE AND METHOD OF FILLING CONTAINERS Jan. 16, 1940. L SINZ 2,187,332

FILLING MACHINE AND METHOD OF FILLING CQNTAINEBS Filed NOV. 24, 1937 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 Jan. 16, 1940 PATENT OFFICE FILLING MACHINE AND METHOD or FILLING CONTAINERS Lawrence P. Sinz, Los Angeles, Qalifg assignor to Crown Cork & Seal Company, Inc., a corporation of New York Application November 24, 1937, Serial No. 176,328

'7 Claims.

The present invention relates to a filling ma chine and method of filling containers.

Filling machines for filling containers such as bottles with carbonated beverages usually include a filling reservoir having a body of carbonated water therein with a body of gas above and exerting pressure on the water. Each filling head of the machine includes a line communicating with th e gas containing portion of the reservoir and another line communicating with the body of water. The filling method used with such an apparatus ordinarily consists of three steps or stages, the first or counter-pressure stage involving flowing gas from the reservoir to each previously syruped bottle so that the pressure W within the bottle will be the same as the pressure above the body of water in the reservoir. On the second or filling? stage, the bottle is placed in communication'with the body of water so that water will flow into the bottle by gravity fiow while the counter-pressure gas in the bottle simultaneously fiows back to the reservoir through a vent provided in the filling head nozzle. flow of water into the bottle will continue until the water rises above the gas vent, and then some counter-pressure gaswill be trapped in the neck of the bottle above this vent. On the third stage, termed thesnifting stage, thegasifilled space in the neck of the bottle is opened to the atmosphere, so that the compressed gas in this space may be vented. Simultaneously with this operation, or immediately subsequent thereto, the mouth of the bottle is moved out of engagement with the filling head.

The principal object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus and method to improve upon the filling apparatus and method described above, in order that bottles maybe more rapidly and efiiciently filled, and with a minimum possibility of foaming.

The apparatus and method of the present invention may be generallydescribed as involving 1 the provisionof an intermediate snifting step during the usual filling stage. By this arrange The again and 'finallysnifted torelieve the gas pressure above the surface of the liquid in the bottle.

The filling apparatus and method of the present invention have the further advantage of enabling bottles to be more rapidly filled, thereby giving the filling machine a higher than normal output of bottles per minute. The increased rate of filling results from the fact that after the bottle has been .intermediately sniited, and filling is resumed, the filling water may be flowed very rapidly into the bottle because the intermediate snifting has brought the contents of the bottle to a condition of equilibrium. Obviously, since the filling water in the reservoir is subject to the body of gas above it, the water will at first be flowed down into the bottle at a fairly rapid rate and it is found that the entire cycle is thus conducted in a shorter time than the usual three stage cycle customarily followed.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following specification and drawings, wherein I a Figure l is a general plan view of a filling machine of a type upon which the method included in the present invention may be conducted. The syruping and crowning mechanism ordinarily in cluded in such a machine is omitted from the figure.

Figure 21s an elevation of a type of filling head which may be used with the present invention.

Figure 3 is a central vertical sectional view through the filling head of Figure 2.

Figure 4 is a vertical sectional view through the filling head of Figure 2 and showing the valve thereof in the position it occupies during the counter pressure stage, the view being diagram matic in that it shows the passages and ports involved in the counter pressure stage in the same vertical plane.

Figure 5 is a view of the same type as Figure 4, but showing the passages used -for water fiow during the filling stages and in the same vertical plane.

Figure 6 is a view also of the same type as Figure 4, but showing the venting, ports used in the filling stages and in the same vertical plane.

Figure 7 is a view of the same type as the three preceding figures, but with the passages ,used during intermediate and final shifting shown in the same vertical plane.

Figure 8 is a sectional view of a filling head, showing the passages and ports of the valve body and valve, the filling nozzle being shown in vertical section. In this view, the filling valve is shown rotated just slightly past snifting position in order to make the arrangement of the aligned passages more apparent.

Figure 9 is a horizontal sectional view on the line 9--9 of Figure 8.

Figure 10 is a horizontal sectional view on the line llll0 of Figure 8.

Figure 11 is a horizontal sectional view on the line I l-| I of Figure 8, and

Figures 12a to 12 respectively show the position of the valve arms of the filling head valve during the various stages of the filling cycle of the present invention.

The filling machine shown in Figure 1 is of the type disclosed in the application of Robert J. Stewart and Frank S. Bell for Filling machine, Serial No. 166,403, filed September 29, 1937, and

includes a stationary or work table and a rotatable filling'table 2| positioned adjacent the same. As is fully described in the" above mentioned Stewart and Bell application, incoming bottles to be filled move into the machine upon a straight line conveyor 22 which moves across the stationary table 20, thebottles being removed from the conveyor 22 by an infeed dial 23 which positions them in the pockets of a dial 24 provided beneath the syruping mechanism, not shown, so that each bottle will receive a charge of syrup. A transfer dial 25 removes each bottle from the syruping dial 24 and positions the same upon a vertically movable bottle supporting platform 26, as indicated inFigure 12a. One of the bottle supporting platforms is provided beneath each of the filling heads 21 shown secured about the upper periphery of the filling table 2|. The filling table shown in Figure 1 includes forty such filling heads but this number may of course be varied.

The stationary table 20 also includes a second transfer dial 28 which is adapted to remove filled bottles from the filling platforms 26 of the filling table and conduct them to a dial 29 positioned beneath the crowning mechanism, not shown. During the movement of the bottles with the dial 29 they are crowned in the usual manner and are removed from this dial by an outfeed dial 30 which positions the bottles upon the outfeed end of the straight line conveyor 22 so that they will be removed from the machine.

The filling heads 21 shown in the drawings are of the rotary disc type disclosed in the application of George J. Huntley and Robert J. Stewart for Filling machine, filed May 15, 1933, Serial No. 671,266. Each filling head 21 comprises a valve body 32 having a seat face 33 on which a valve disc 34 including a packet seat face 35 is mounted. The valve disc 34 is rotatable on a stud 36 threaded in the valve body as shown in Figure 3. The valve body 32 includes a depending portion 31 from which extends a filling nozzle 38.

A centering bell 39 is slidable upon the nozzle 38 in the usual manner.

Each valve body 32 has a plurality of horizontal passages therein extending from its seat face 33 to its rear face, and a number of angled passages extending from the seat face down to the filling nozzle 38. The ends of these passages are adapted to be bridged by passages in the valve disc 34 during movement of the valve disc, all as specifically described in the above-mentioned Huntley and Stewart application, and as hereinafter generally described. As best shown in Figure 8, the filling nozzle 38 includes a central tube 42 having a bore 43 therein from which water may flow into a bottle through ports 44. The filling nozzle also includes a sleeve 45 surrounding the tube 42, and, as shown in Figures 8 to 10, the tube has a flattened portion extending down along the same to provide a passage 46 between the interior of the sleeve 45 and the flat surface of tube 42. Passage 46 opens to the interior of a bottle through ports 41 in sleeve 45. The upper end of the flattened portion extends upabove the end of sleeve 45 so that the passage 46 formed thereby may communicate with a passage 48 in the body member of the'filling head as shown in Figure 8.

The centering bell 39 includes a central bore so that it may slide on the filling nozfle 45, and kerfs 50 are spacedabout the wall of this bore. When the centering ball bears upon a bottle, the lower ends of the kerfs will communicate with the bottle interior, and since the'upper end of the centeringbell will at such time be in sealed contact with the lower end of the body element 32 of the filling head as shown in Figure 8, the upper ends of the kerfs 50 will be in communication with a passage 5| in the valve body.

Each valve disc 34 is provided with an upwardly extending valve arm 54 and a downwardly extending valve arm 55, both arranged to contact with trips passed about the path of rotation of the filling table. As best shown in Figure 1, a counter pressure trip 56 is positioned adjacent the point at which bottles are initiallyv placed upon the filling table 2|. A short distance from the counter pressure trip 56, in a clockwise direction, a first filling trip 51 is arranged in the path of-movement of the filling heads. At the rear of the machine and at a point substantially midway of the path of movement of the bottles on the filling table an intermediate snifting trip 58 is positioned, and a final filling trip 59 is provided a short distance further along in a clockwise direction. The final snifting trip 60 is positioned near the point at which the bottles return to the stationary table 20, and at a point coinciding with or very closely adjacent the point at which the bottles are moved downwardly and out of contact with the filling heads.

As is the usual practice, each bottle supporting platform 26 will be fiush with the surface of the stationary table 20 at the time that a bottle is positioned on the platform by the transfer dial 25, the platform being held downwardly in this position by a fixed arcuate cam, not shown, and with which a roller, not shown, included in the bottle platform structure engages. Immediately after the bottle has been positioned upon the bottle supporting platform, the cam engaging roller of that platform will move out of engagement with the stationary cam and will move the bottle upwardly to place its mouth in engagement with the aligned filling head 21 as shown in Figures 2, 3 and 12a. At this time the bottle will of course usually have a charge of syrup therein as shown in Figure 12a.

Almost immediately after a bottle has been positioned upon a bottle supporting platform 26 and in contact with a filling head as described above and as diagrammatically shown in Figure 12a, the lower valve arm 55 of the filling head will contact with the counter pressure trip 56, thereby moving the valve arm to the position indicated in Figure 1217, which position corresponds to the counter pressure position of the valve disc indicated in dotted lines in Figure 2. The disc valve 34 will thereby be rotated 50 that flow will occur through the passages diagrammatically illustrated in Figure 4. Referring to Figure 4, horizontal counter pressure gas fiow passages It will be observed that the method of filling disclosed herein includes the practice of establishing a pressure in the bottle corresponding to that in the reservoir before fiowing the water into the bottle, then placing the bottle in communication with the atmosphere, and then placing the bottle in communication with both the gas and the water in the reservoir so that a rapid flow of water is had. This method is particu' larly efficient because of the fact that prior .to the last mentioned stage of flowing both water and gas into the bottle, the contents of the bottle have been brought to a state of equilibrium.

It will be understood that the invention is not limited to the details of construction shown in the drawings and that the example of the use of the machine and method which has been given does not include all of the uses of which they are capable; and that the phras'eology employed in the specification is for the purpose of 1 description and not of limitation.

I claim:

1; The combination in a filling machine having a rotary filling table, a reservoir for liquid and gas, a plurality of filling heads and means to support containers in alignment with the filling heads, the filling heads including valve means to control the flow of liquid and gas from the reservoir to the containers, of means spaced about the path of travel of the filling table to contact with and actuate each of said valve means seriatim to a plurality of positionsto establish the same pressure in the container as exists in the reservoir so that liquid may flow to the container by gravity flow, to release the pressure from the container and to then permit both the gas and liquid to flow together to the con tainer.

2. The combination in a filling machine having a rotary filling table, a reservoir for liquid and gas, a plurality of filling heads of rotary disc valve type and means to support containers in alignment with said filling heads, of means spaced about the path of travel of the filling table to cause the disc valves of said filling heads to be actuated seriatim to permit of counter pressure gas fiow from the reservoir to the containers, filling liquid flow to the containers with simultaneous return fiow of gas to the reservoir, cutting off of liquid flow and gas venting and the placing of the interior of the container in communication with the atmosphere, resumption of liquid flow with the container in communication with the gas containing portion of the reservoir, and finally again placing the interior of the container in communication with the atmosphere.

3. The method of filling containers with liquid from a reservoir having a body or liquid therein under fiuid pressure, comprising establishing the same pressure in the container as is present above the liquid in the reservoir, flowin liquid into the container, releasing the pressure in the container, and then simultaneously flowing liquid and gas into the container.

4. The method of filling containers with liquid from a reservoir having a body of liquid therein under fiuid pressure, comprising establishing the same pressure in the container as is present above the liquid in the reservoir, fiowinl; liquid into the container, stopping the fiow of liquid and releasing the pressure in the container, and then simultaneously flowing liquid and gas into the container.

5. The method of filling containers with liquid from a reservoir having a body of liquid therein under fiuid pressure, comprising establishing the same pressure in the container as is present above the liquid in the reservoir, flowing liquid into the container, stopping the flow of liquid and releasing the pressure in the container, and then simultaneously flowing liquid and gas into the container and subsequently placing the container in communication with the atmosphere.

6. The combination in a filling machine having a reservoir for liquid and gas, a plurality of filling heads and means to support containers in alignment with the filling heads, the filling heads including valve means to control the flow of liquid and gas from the reservoir to the containers, of means to actuate each of said valve means seriatim to a plurality of positions to establish the same pressure in the container as exists in the reservoir so that liquid may fiow to the container by gravity flow, releasing the pressure'irom the container and then permitting the gas and liquid to simultaneously fiow to the container, and means to hold each container mouth in sealed engagement with the aligned filling head throughout such movement of said valve means.

7. The combination in a filling machine having a rotary filling table, a reservoir for liquid and gas, a plurality oi filling heads and means to support containers in alignment with the filling heads, the filling heads including valve means to control the flow of liquid and gas from the reservoir to the containers, of means spaced about the path of travel of the filling table to actuate each of said valve means seriatim to a plurality of positions to establish the same pressure in the container as exists in the reservoir so that liquid may fiow to the container by gravity flow, releasing the pressure from the container and then permitting the gas and liquid to simultaneously fiow to the container, and means to hold each container mouth in sealed engagement with the aligned filling head throughout such movement of said valve means.

LAWRENCE P. SINZ. 00 

